How to Study in Germany Without IELTS

Can you study in Germany without IELTS? The straight answer

Yes for English-taught programmes, and the visa is not what stands in the way. The German mission checks that you hold a Zulassungsbescheid — the university’s admission letter — and runs no language test of its own; the Nairobi mission states the language-proof requirement may be waived where the university has already tested you during admission, or where your earlier studies were conducted in English. So the rule that decides your case is the university’s, and each of Germany’s 422 recognised institutions writes its own. Two doors are open. The first is an English-taught programme at a university that names an alternative — TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, a Cambridge certificate, UNIcert, or a medium-of-instruction letter. The second is a German-taught programme, where the exam you sit is German and IELTS was never asked for. The catch is where the English-taught places sit. LMU Munich runs 0 English-taught bachelor’s programmes and TU Darmstadt 0; every TU Berlin bachelor’s degree requires German; Tübingen has 3 bachelor’s against 35 master’s. You can avoid IELTS in Germany; at bachelor’s level you often cannot avoid German. Our guide to studying in Germany sets out the wider picture.

“No IELTS” is not “no English” — the distinction

Agents in Lagos, Accra and Nairobi sell “no IELTS” as “no English needed”. It is not that. An English-taught degree in Germany is examined in English — seminar papers, oral defences, a thesis — and universities set the level at B2 or C1 on the Common European Framework. CODE University of Applied Sciences states B2 overall; the Free University of Berlin publishes no single score and maps each programme to a CEFR level instead. What changes without IELTS is the evidence you file, not the standard you meet. That is also why a medium-of-instruction letter fails so often: it records the language your school taught in, not your own level. Choose the alternative your target programme names on its own page, then read the sub-score rules before you pay for anything. Our guide to IELTS alternatives compares what each option costs in time and money.

Typical English requirements at universities in Germany

Across German universities the usual floor is IELTS 6 for bachelor’s and IELTS 6.5 for master’s, with a TOEFL iBT figure published beside it.

RWTH Aachen sets the pattern for a public technical university: IELTS 6 at bachelor’s and 6 at master’s, TOEFL iBT 90, PTE Academic, Cambridge B2 First or UNIcert II+, with a higher bar written into some master’s regulations. TU Munich asks IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 88 for master’s entry. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and TU Dresden both sit at IELTS 6.5 and TOEFL iBT 90, and TU Berlin at IELTS 6.5.

Bachelor’s floors run lower. Bonn accepts IELTS 5.5 or TOEFL iBT 72 for selected programmes, Hamburg IELTS 5.5 or TOEFL iBT 70, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg IELTS 5.5 or TOEFL iBT 80. Freiburg publishes IELTS 6 at both levels with TOEFL iBT 80.

Heidelberg, Humboldt, LMU Munich, the Free University of Berlin and Tübingen publish no university-wide minimum: the requirement lives in each programme’s own admission regulations, which is why the highest published figures come from single degrees — IELTS 7 and TOEFL iBT 100 on Tübingen’s MSc Machine Learning, IELTS 7 on Humboldt’s MA Mind and Brain, IELTS 6.5 on Heidelberg’s English-taught master’s. TU Darmstadt’s master’s bar is IELTS 7 or TOEFL iBT 95.

No university in our German dataset publishes acceptance of a WAEC or WASSCE English grade as language proof, and FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg states plainly that it does not. Programme lists are on our German universities page.

Universities that accept students without IELTS

The University of Bonn accepts TOEFL iBT 72 or PTE Academic for its B2-level bachelor’s programmes, and waives the test entirely if your secondary schooling or your first degree was taught in English. That is the clearest medium-of-instruction rule of any university here.

TU Darmstadt accepts TOEFL iBT 95 or a medium-of-instruction letter, but only from master’s level: it runs 0 English-taught bachelor’s programmes against 22 master’s.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology accepts TOEFL iBT 90 or a medium-of-instruction letter for its English-taught master’s. Its standard bachelor’s programmes set no English requirement at all, because they are German-taught and ask for German B1 to apply.

The Free University of Berlin accepts a medium-of-instruction letter and sets the level per programme rather than by score; it lists 1 English-taught bachelor’s and 25 master’s, all at free tuition.

CODE University of Applied Sciences accepts TOEFL iBT 72, the Duolingo English Test or a medium-of-instruction letter. It is private, and tuition is the trade: €650–1,250 per month.

RWTH Aachen accepts TOEFL iBT 90, PTE Academic, Cambridge B2 First or UNIcert II+, but publishes no medium-of-instruction rule — tests only. IU International University of Applied Sciences accepts TOEFL iBT 80, at €20,910 per programme for a bachelor’s.

Every rule here is programme-specific: the same university can accept a letter for one degree and refuse it for the next, so read the programme page rather than the university’s general admissions page.

Local-language programmes: Germany’s other door

German-taught programmes are the larger half of German higher education and, at bachelor’s level, often the only half. TU Berlin’s bachelor’s admission asks for DSH-2 or DSH-3, TestDaF 4-4-4-4, Goethe C2 or telc C1 Hochschule, and its language page has no English section at all. TU Darmstadt’s German-taught bachelor’s degrees need DSH-2. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology asks for German B1 to apply and DSH before you start. That is C1 territory, and for a school-leaver from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia or Zimbabwe it usually means a Studienkolleg first, because a WASSCE, NECO, KCSE or NSC certificate rarely opens a German bachelor’s on its own. A public Studienkolleg charges only the semester contribution of €100–400 per semester, and the degree that follows is free at a public university, so the cost of this route is time rather than fees. French gives Moroccan applicants no shortcut here — Germany examines in German. Our foundation year and Studienkolleg guide sets out the entry rules.

When you still need a recognised English test

Not for the visa: the mission reads your admission letter, not your test report. Scholarships are the first real gate — DAAD and Erasmus Mundus set their own language evidence, and a letter from your school will not clear it. Medicine is the second: no English-taught medical degree appears in our German dataset, so the proof there is German at C1. The third is the competitive master’s, where Tübingen, Humboldt and TU Darmstadt all sit at IELTS 7 and a small intake will take the test-holder over the letter-holder. One warning: a forged language certificate sits on the published list of German student-visa refusal reasons, and it draws immediate rejection and a fraud flag.

The honest bit: what “without IELTS” does and doesn’t buy you

It buys you a shorter list, not an easier one. Skipping IELTS removes a fee and a test date; it does not remove the level, the deadlines or the money. Each alternative carries a cost of its own. A medium-of-instruction letter is refused outright at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, TU Dresden and Tübingen, and weighed case by case at Heidelberg, Humboldt, LMU Munich, TU Munich, TU Berlin and Hamburg — six maybes you cannot plan around. The institutions most willing to take an alternative are the private ones, at €650–1,250 per month or €20,910 per programme, against free tuition plus €100–400 per semester at a public one. If your target is a public university, sitting TOEFL iBT is usually cheaper than rebuilding your plan around avoiding a test — set it against the full cost of studying in Germany.